Of course, for those who have no idea what Google Penguin Update was and or how will (and probably could had affected) your websites, this video from Matt Cutts explained them all.

Movie time!

Should you change your SEO techniques?

It doesn’t matter if you are doing white hat SEO or black hat SEO. The bottom line is that you need to make sure you are doing it correctly.

When I say correctly, it simply means that all your SEO techniques must not be spammy. Even if you are building backlinks from Web 2.0 or Wiki’s, you must make sure you need to pay extra attention to those small and petty things such as anchor text.

Now let me be very honest with you on this matter. I dare to say that premium SEO tools are still worthy and important in terms of search engine optimization.

You see, there are probably tons of SEO tools out there to choose from regardless if they are free or paid. Either way, it depends back to the end user in terms of using them! I know many bloggers who fail to use Ultimate Demon link building tool to correctly and they were slapped pretty bad with the latest Google Update.

What are the best SEO techniques right now?

Disclaimer: These methods does not guarantee you 100% success in your search engine optimization strategies. However, use these methods as guidelines and modify them according to your website’s need.

The first part is rather clear. All these Google updates are done because (and I highly believe) Google wanted no one to misuse the SEO for their own advantage. This was what Adam from BloggingWizard said during one of our conversations:

This is just one part of our conversation but you get the point

As you can see now, it seems pretty obvious that there are many SEO techniques which are (sadly) misused by many. I know I am going a little off topic here but just giving my opinion.

Assuming that’s the case, it is best that we need to understand how this search engine optimization really works and you have two choices. You can either read this eBook which would cost you like less than $10 or follow this blog closesly for more SEO tips. Of course, you can also contact me if you have any issues as well!

The reader’s engagement rule

Welcome your readers and thank them for visiting your website

In this article, I want to stress the importance of the reader’s engagement when it comes to SEO best practices. Now, ask your self a few quick questions first before we go in any deeper into the topic.

What do you know about reader’s engagement?

How can you practice SEO when you communicate with your readers?

Reader’s engagement rule is huge. It consist not only other blogs and websites but it also involves social media. The rule of engagement for this types of SEO techniques are very simple indeed.

You want to build good search engine ranking or quality backlinks. Now, the more people talk about your article, blog or website, the chances of you getting traffic is better. Don’t forget that big daddy, Google is more than happy to give higher SEO ranking to websites who are constantly and actively in the discussion.

Have you noticed how websites such as ProBlogger, kikolani and probloggingsuccess are doing very well in search engine ranking page results? Have you ever why they always top the chart whenever you search for any related terms?

The answer is easy. Look at the number of comments they have. We are not talking about 5 or 10. We are talking hundreds of comments, for Christ’s sake!

Doesn’t this prove that reader’s engagement is one of the best SEO practices of all time? Yup, you got it right!

Of course, there is a little bonus for those using WordPress platform. If you want to drive traffic to your website, I would highly recommend you to use CommentLuv Premium. This is the best comment plugin for WordPress when it comes to link building and search engine optimization methods.

Hint: Some websites (including this website) are offering free follow backs or DoFollow link back when the reader had contributed a certain number of comments.

The effect of guest posting in terms of search engine optimization

Guest post can easily create a healthy backlink to your website

Are you interested to build quality backlinks for your website? I bet you are right and that’s why you are here right now. Guest posting was deem valuable in the past and now, it is worth more than gold.

So, how does guest posting actually helps in terms of SEO?

Every time a guest post is made, the writer is going to link the article back to his or her own website. Good for you since you are able to get 1 point for backlink right?

Wait! There’s more!

Whenever you are doing a guest post, you are not only selling your article but as well as selling your website and brand. Yes, you are telling people that you are alive and kickin’.

The websites that you are going to publish your articles should be:

Well recognized

Having good traffic

A good Page Rank

And highly related to your niche

When it comes to SEO techniques, Google and other search engines doesn’t really matter how you generate such backlinks (until certain extend of course). Let’s imagine this:

One guest post consist of one links to root domain (author box), two deep links pointing to specific articles on your website. There goes three superb good link building points!

Sounds good? Oh yes, it certainly does.

If you want to venture into guest posting or simply making guest posting one of your SEO techniques, these are what you need to prepare:

Quality articles of about 600 to 1,500 words (depending on websites and requirements)

Do some bloody research. I mean…do some serious research before hand

Write once but recheck it more than twice

Find the best link building website to publish the article (okay I am joking about the link building website as any good page rank websites would do)

Back to you

What do you think of this article? With the latest Google Penguin update, are you going to change your SEO techniques? Do you have any other search engine optimization methods to share aloud? I am sure you have some under your sleeves and therefore, feel free to reply using the comment form below.

Oh yes! Before I forget, I sincerely hope you will signup for my free SEO newsletter. If you have not, you could signup below and it would take less than 10 seconds of your time. I promise!

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Reginald Chan

Being the top influencer in blogging and social media, Reginald spends his time helping businesses and startups to boost brand power, increase visibility and growth hacking. He recently took it to a whole new level and co-founded Marketing Lancers, a digital marketing agency in Malaysia.